Drummond stared at the sodden earth, numb with cold and waited for what was to come. He wondered about Father Kerrigan and Janet and the boy, somewhere on the other side of the river in the mist, and prayed that the old man would have the sense to keep on the move. But the Indian border was a long way oflj all of three hundred miles.
A burst of shrill, girlish laughter came from the
Chinese and he stiffened. They strutted towards the line of prisoners, their thin voices bird-like on the wind and Dnunmond dropped his head and waited.
A boot thudded into his chest and he rolled on his face and fought for breath. The wire was torn from his wrists and a kick in the side drove him to his feet The Chinese soldier grinned amiably and held out a spade.
Drummond glanced once at Hamid and they started to dig. The soil was soft and sandy and lifted easily. Beside them the other prisoners worked silently, and as Drummond bent to his task, he knew with a feeling of utter hopelessness that it wouldn't take very long.
The rain increased into a heavy downpour and the Chinese turned and ran to the shelter of their vehicles leaving one man on guard, a sub-machine gun crooked in one arm.
The trench was now a couple of feet down and Drummond wondered how deep they wanted it Six feet was the statutory requirement for a grave back home, but it was unlikely that the Chinese bothered about such niceties.
He leaned on his spade for a moment and Hamid moved closer. 'I don't suppose we've got much longer,' Drummond said.
Hamid glanced once over his shoulder at the mist rolling up from the river. 'Not if I can help it Any good at the hundred yard dash, Jack?'
Drummond frowned in bewilderment 'What in the hell are you talking about?.
This,' Hamid said crisply and slapped Mm heavily in the face.
As Drummond staggered back, momentarily dazed, the guard hurried across to see what the disturbance was about. He leaned over the trench, the sub-machine gun pointed threateningly and Hamid swung the edge of the spade against his neck. The man fell Into the trench without a sound.
The rain was now a heavy grey curtain that almost shrouded them from the troop carriers and the jeep. Hamid snatched up the guard's sub-machine gun, scrambled out of the trench and ran towards the river. Drummond went after him, slipping and stumbling in the mud.
Behind him he heard a cry and glanced over his shoulder. The other prisoners were strung out in a ragged line, running for dear life. Beyond them, the first Chinese had already reached the trench, firing as they advanced, and one of the troop carrier's heavy machine guns opened up above then. heads.
The river was very close now and he increased his pace as he smelled water. A bullet plucked at his heel and he tripped and fell heavily. Hamid was beside him in an instant He dragged him to his feet and together they stumbled down the slope to the water.
The river was in a sullen, angry mood. It ran smoothly through the heavy rain, but sudden swirls on the surface indicated dangerous currents and the speed with which tree branches drifted by argued against any attempt to reach the other side.
There was a rattle of stones and earth behind and one of Sher Dil's soldiers ran past, his face purple with effort so that a scar which stretched from one eye to the corner of his mouth gleamed whitely. He plunged into the water and began to swim furiously.
In a few moments, the swift current had carried him out of sight into the heavy rain. Others followed, some bleeding from wounds, crying with fear as they stumbled down the slope and flung themselves into the river.
They won't last five minutes,' Hamid shouted. The water must be near freezing.'
A bullet landed at their feet, showering them with dirt. He turned as four Chinese appeared at the top of the slope and swung the sub-machine gun in a wide arc, firing from the hip. Two of them crumpled to the ground.
As their companions dropped behind an outcrop of rock, several more appeared on the skyline and Hamid drove them back with a long burst that emptied the gun.
As one of the troop carriers came into view, Hamid tossed the useless weapon to one side and they ran into the river and splashed through the shallows towards a line of dense, thorny bushes that grew down into the water. Bullets churned around them and then they were waist deep and hidden by the rain.
The water was bitterly cold and Drummond could feel it eating its way into his bones. They could hear the cries of the soldiers coming nearer and began to move further downstream aided by the strong current
The land curved out for about fifty yards making a natural breakwater, imprisoning a floating mass of smashed trees and branches. They pushed towards it and the current, taking pity on them, swept them into the safety of the floating jungle.
They rested side by side, holding the branches of a tree, gasping for breath. Voices came from the shore and half a dozen soldiers appeared, pushing their way through the bushes along the water's edge.
They were no more than ten yards away from the shore and through the branches Drummond could see the Chinese clearly, the peaked caps pulled down over the eyes, the red star prominent, the shining Burp guns and rubber, knee-length boots.
The breathless minutes passed slowly and the cold gradually numbed their limbs. The soldiers appeared to be having a conference. After a while, they split into pairs and disappeared into the driving rain.
'Now what?' Drummond said.
'Only one thing for it,' Hamid said, his lips blue with the cold. 'We'll have to try to get across on one of these logs. They'll be swarming around like flies on this side of the river. We wouldn't last five minutes..
He let go of the tree and splashed to the next one, progressing slowly through the floating mass and Drummond followed. When they reached the edge, they found a krge tree that was already swinging out into the river, straining to be free.
Hamid pulled himself into the branches and Drummond said, Til try to guide it from the other end.'
He lifted a foot from the water and pushed against the next tree. There was a snapping of branches and the tree lifted into the current In a few moments they were drifting rapidly away and the floating mass of trees and the promontory disappeared into the mist.
Drummond soon found that it was impossible to guide the tree. It went with the current and his feeble kicking had no effect. He gave up the struggle and tried to heave himself into a more secure position, but his frozen limbs refused to help him. He trailed helplessly through the water, arms hooking over a projecting branch and gradually all discomfort and pain left him.
When Cheung scrambled up the steep bank from the river's edge, he found General Ho Tsen still sitting in the front of the jeep, a cigarette in a long jade holder between his teeth.
'Well?' the General demanded.
Cheung seemed tired. 'As yet there is no sign of them, General.'
'A small subterfuge which often leads to remarkable results,' said Ho Tsea. 'Wasn't tliat what you promised msT
Cheung wiped rain from his face mechanically. 'What can I say?'
'Nothing,' Ho Tsen told him. That would be much better. As it happens, in such weather it is more than likely that Drummond and his friend are akeady floating face down somewhere out there in the flood. In any case, I shall take charge here, Colonel. Take your men and go north to Kama. Cross the river and bring me back the young Khan.' He paused and neatly ejected the end of his cigarette from the holder. When he looked up again, his eyes were cold. 'Without him, there would be little point in returning at all. You follow me?'
Cheuag stood there in the rain, staring at him for a moment, his face quite white. He seemed to pull himself together, saluted, turned and clambered up beside the driver of the first troop carrier. A moment later, the two vehicles moved up the slope, their tracks spurning file wet earth and disappeared into the mist
Forced March
VAGUELY through his numbed mind, Drummond became aware that something was digging into him. After a while, he realised that another large tree had drifted into them. They floated together, branches intertwined, their combined weight considerably slowing down the speed at which they were travelling,
Hamid was still secure in Ms perch amongst the branches and after a while he called, 1 can see the other side. The river must be narrowing.'
Drummond turned his head. Through the torrential rain, the opposite bank was just visible and it seemed to draw nearer every moment. The water became rougher and trees and flotsam of every description raced through the white-capped waves.
Suddenly, the bank was very close and seemed to increase in size as the river churned through a deeper and narrowing channel. There was a sickening, body-shaking jar and the tree grounded.
Drummond heard a cry and saw Hamid flung into the water. He unhooked his cramped limbs and found that he could stand waist deep. He forced his way along, pushed by the current, and caught Hamid by the belt before the river took him. There was a crashing sound behind and, as he turned, the trees were lifted by a sudden swell of the water and swept away again.
The water boiled around them as they braced themselves against the current. Slowly they forced their way to the steeply shelving banks and scrambled to temporary safety. They lay face down, their battered bodies heaving as they retched up river water.
After a while, they got to their feet and clambered up the mud bank away from the river. They stood looking across the river through the mist, listening. Hamid was shaking with cold, his uniform moulded to his body although strangely enough, his turban was still intact
'Sooner or later they'll get men across by boat,' he said. They're bound to find an odd one or two missed by the refugees.'
'But they'll be on foot, just like us,' Drummond reminded him. The nearest place they have a hope of crossing with vehicles is Kama and that's twenty miles north from here. The shallows there could well be impassable because of the rain.'
.Well, one thing is certain,' Hamid said with a savage grin. There's only one road out to India and there's only one way we're going to get to it'
They began to walk south through the rain, slowly, because the ground was fast turning into a quagmire. Drummond found it an effort to lift one foot in front of the other, and after a while found himself falling behind the hardy hiliman.
They moved into a grey impenetrable mist that shrouded them completely from the outside world. Nothing existed now except the two of them and the rain and Drummond stumbled on through the mud, wondering what he was doing here and where it was all going to end.
It was perhaps half an hour later that he became aware that Hamid was calling to him. He was standing on top of a small hill about fifty yards away. When Drummond joined him, he saw a herdsman's hut in a small hollow below.
There was no sign of life and they moved cautiously down into the hollow. Drummond didn't feel tired any more. He didn't feel anything. He knew he was alive and that was about all.
It was a poor place of mud and wattle construction and a thin tracer of smoke lifted through a hole in the straw roof. Hamid opened the door and led the way in.
The fire on the stone hearth was banked with earth and smoke drifted in a heavy layer against the ceiling. It was filthy and it smelled and Drummond knew the place was very probably lousy with fleas as well, but it was warm and dry, and at the moment that was all that mattered.
He raked the soil from the fire and brought wood from a pile in one corner. Hamid rummaged amongst the sheepskins at the back and came up with a couple of stone jars.
He brought them to the fire with a grin. 'Goafs mHk and cheese. Pretty rancid, but good for the constitution..
'At the moment, I could face anything except going out there in these wet clothes again,' Drummond said.
He built the fire into a great, roaring pyramid and Hamid gave the sheepskins a shake. 'God alone knows what we'll get from this lot.
But it didn't matter, nothing mattered except that it was warm and the fire was hot on the skin. Drummond crouched there watching the steam rise from his clothes.suspended from the ridge pole, a sheepskia around his shoulders, and after a while he slept
He awakened slowly and stared through the dim grey light at his clothes hanging from the ridge pole of the hut, wondering where he was. After a while he remembered and sat up.
Hamid squatted on the other side of the fire. He was wearing his uniform again and grinned. 'How do you feel?.
'Bloody awful!' Drummond stretched his arms and blood started to flow through cramped limbs. 'How long have we been here?.
.A couple of hours, that's aH. Must be about two o'clock. We'd better get moving. Your clothes are pretty dry by now. Better than they were, anyway.
Drummond started to dress and Hamid peered outside. 'From the looks of it, this rain is never going to stop. I think it'll turn to snow before it does.'